There is another white Flower like our Jasmine, well scented, they call them Picha-mauls, which the King hath a parcel of brought to him every morning, wrapt in a white cloth, hanging upon a staff, and carried by people, whose peculiar office this is. All people that meet these flowers, out of respect to the King, for whose use they are, must turn out of the Way; and so they must for all other things that go to the King being wrapt up in white cloth. These Officers hold Land of the King for this service: their Office is, also to plant these Flowers, which they usually do near the Rivers where they most delight to grow: Nay, they have power to plant them in any mans Ground, and enclose that ground when they have done it for the sole use of their Flowers to grow in: which Inclosures they will keep up for several years, until the Ground becomes so worn, that the Flowers will thrive there no longer, and then the Owners resume their own Lands again.
Hop-Mauls, are Flowers growing upon great Trees, which bear nothing else, they are rarely sweet scented; this is the chief Flower the young people use; and is of greatest value among them.
CHAP. VI
Of their Beasts, Tame and Wild, InsectsWhat Beasts the Country produceth.Having spoken concerning the Trees and Plants of this Island, We will now go on to speak of the Living Creatures on it, viz. Their Beasts, Insects, Birds, Fish, Serpents, &c. useful or noxious. And we begin first with their Beasts. They have Cowes, Buffaloes, Hogs, Goats, Deer, Hares, Dogs, Jacols, Apes, Tygers, Bears, Elephants, and other Wild Beasts. Lions, Wolves, Horses, Asses, Sheep, they have none. Deer no bigger than Hares.Deer are in great abundance in the Woods, and of several sorts, from the largeness of a Cow or Buffalo, to the smalness of a Hare. For here is a Creature in this Land no bigger, but in every part rightly resembleth a Deer, It is called Meminna, of colour gray with white spots, and good meat.
Other Creatures rare in their kind.Here are also wild Buffalos; also a sort of Beast they call Gauvera, so much resembling a Bull, that I think it one of that kind. His back stands up with a sharp ridg; all his four feet white up half his Legs. I never saw but one, which was kept among the Kings Creatures. Here was a Black Tygre catched and brought to the King, and afterwards a Deer milk white; both which he very much esteemed; there being no more either before or since ever heard of in that Land.
The way how a Wild Deer was catched.If any desire to know how this white Deer was caught, it was thus; This Deer was observed to come on Evenings with the rest of the Herd to a great Pond to drink; the People that were ordered to catch this Deer, fenced the Pond round and plain about it with high stakes, leaving onely one wide gap. The men after this done lay in ambush, each with his bundle of Stakes ready cut. In the Evening the Deer came with the rest of the Herd to drink according to their wont. As soon as they were entred within the stakes, the men in ambush fell to their work, which was to fence in the gap left, which, there being little less than a Thousand men, they soon did; and so all the Herd were easily caught; and this among the rest.
Of their Elephants.The King hath also an Elephant spotted or freckled all the body over, which was lately caught; and tho he hath many and very stately Elephants, and may have as many more as he pleases, yet he prefers this before them all. And since I am fallen upon discourse of the Elephant, the creature that this Countrey is famed for above any in India, I will detain my self a little longer upon it.
The way of catching Elephants.I will first relate the manner of taking them, and afterwards their Sagacity, with other things that occur to my memory concerning them. This Beast, tho he be so big and wise, yet he is easily catched. When the King commands to catch Elephants, after they have found them they like, that is such as have Teeth, for tho there be many in the Woods, yet but few have Teeth, and they males onely: unto these they drive some She-Elephants, which they bring with them for the purpose; which when once the males have got a sight of, they will never leave, but follow them wheresoever they go; and the females are so used to it, that they will do whatsoever either by a word or a beck their Keepers bid them; and so they delude them along thro Towns and Countreys, thro the Streets of the City, even to the very Gates of the Kings Palace; Where sometimes they seize upon them by snares, and sometimes by driving them into a kind of Pound, they catch them. After they have brought the Elephant which is not yet caught together with the She, into the Kings presence, if it likes him not, he commands to let him go; if it does, he appoints him some certain place near unto the City, where they are to drive him with the Females; for without them it is not possible to make him stay; and to keep him in that place until the Kings further order and pleasure is to catch him, which perhaps may not be in two or three or four Years; All which time there are great men with Souldiers appointed to watch there about him: and if he should chance to stray a little out of his bounds set by the King, immediately they bring him back fearing the Kings displeasure, which is no less than death it self. Here these Elephants do, and may do, great dammage to the Country, by eating up their Corn, and trampling it with their broad feet, and throwing down their Coker-Nut Trees, and oftentimes their Houses too, and they may not resist them. It is thought this is done by the King to punish them that ly under his displeasure; And if you ask what becomes of these Elephants at last; sometimes after they have thus kept watch over them two or three Years, and destroyed the Countrey in this manner, the King will send order to carry them into the Woods, and let them go free. For he catcheth them not for any use or benefit he hath by them, but onely for his recreation and pastime.
The understanding of Elephants. Their Nature.As he is the greatest in body, so in understanding also. For he will do any thing that his Keeper bids him, which is possible for a Beast not having hands to do. And as the Chingulayes report, they bear the greatest love to their young of all irrational Creatures; for the Shees are alike tender of any ones young ones as of their own: where there are many She Elephants together, the young ones go and suck of any, as well as of their Mothers; and if a young one be in distress and should cry out, they will all in general run to the help and aid thereof; and if they be going over a River, as here be some somewhat broad, and the streams run very swift, they will all with their Trunks assist and help to convey the young ones over. They take great delight to ly and tumble in the water, and will swim excellently well. Their Teeth they never shed. Neither will they ever breed tame ones with tame ones; but to ease themselves of the trouble to bring them meat, they will ty their two fore-feet together, and put them into the Woods, where meeting with the wild ones, they conceive and go one Year with young.